Judgment

CHINNAPPA REDDY, J.:- The question raised in all these writ petitions is whether Sec. 30(ii) of the Tamil Nadu Buildings (Lease and Rent Control) Act, 1960 is constitutionally valid. This provision excepts from the application of the Act "any residential building or part thereof occupied by any one tenant if the monthly rent paid by him in respect of-that building or part exceeds four hundred rupees." The argument is that though, the Act is designed to apply generally to all residential and non-residential buildings, residential buildings or parts thereof fetching a rent of more than rupees four hundred are singled out and taken out of the purview of the Act, arbitrarily and without any reason. It is said that the classification of tenants of residential buildings fetching a rent of over rupees four hundred per month into distinct class for the purpose of depriving them of the benefits of the Act by excepting such buildings from the operation of the Act has no reasonable nexus to the three-fold object of the Act, namely, the regulation of the letting of residential as well as non-residential buildings, the control of rents of such buildings and the prevention of unreasonabl